W I N T E R O L Y M P I C S P O R T S C O M P L E X
I C E S K A T I N G & S P E E D S K A T I N G
Lake Placid, New York

After giving him an ear-full of my hockey experience he immediately exclaims to his nearby assistant, "Yes, we have found our man!" To me he barks, "Quickly, go to the locker room and suit-up. Son, you're going to help us beat the Russians!" Wow, this is a dream come true! Obeying his directive I rush to the locker room and hurriedly dress. Putting on the equipment isn't a struggle at all, unlike when I was a kid. Within a minute I'm ready to go. After bursting out of the locker room I rush onto the rink and skate to my goal. The goal I will surely risk life and limb to defend.

So here I stand, all crouched and waiting for my game of glory to commence.

And then I open my eyes... and I discover the arena is empty. What happened? Have I been dreaming?

In retrospect it's probably a good thing there is no game, no crowd, no Russians. You see, I had forgotten my facemask. No wonder the first goalie left the game when the puck hit him in the face. He probably wasn't wearing a facemask either.

Before leaving the empty arena I close my eyes only to find myself back in the game once again. The hockey game is a fierce one, the Russians are shooting on goal in machine gun fashion. But with battered and bruised body, I manage to stop them all. I even catch one of them in my teeth. So it's a good thing I didn't have a facemask after all. In the end, we destroy the Russians 10 to 0. We all receive Olympic Gold Medals and are even awarded the Stanley Cup which makes the celebration even more... okay sorry, back to reality... unfortunately.

At the back of the arena I stumble across another rink that is being used for training. I wonder if any of the folks skating are Olympic hopefuls. The Zamboni Machine puts an end to their practice and I take that as my cue to check out the 1932/1980 Lake Placid Winter Museum.